Working Life

Banks on the brink. Financial system close to collapse–or so said the experts. To the rescue rode the Federal Reserve Board, which authorized trillions of dollars for all sorts of financial institutions, domestic and foreign…even if said institutions didn’t need the money but were happy to take essentially free money.

That was back during the financial crisis.

Now, it’s Greece and its banks running short on cash, squeezed by the money lenders and, in particular, the European Central Bank. So, why not: the Federal Reserve Board should be directed by Congress to commit to providing liquidity to Greek banks so the people in Greece–millions of human beings–can pay their bills, get their pension payments and continue to have money to buy food–or cut off the ECB from its Fed-backed line of credit.

Read the full story

This is a short post. But, an important one that says a lot.

Read the full story

The underlying issue in Greece is simple: the oligarchs wants the people of Greece to bleed, pure and simple. There are easy ways to resolve the crisis without exacting more pounds of flesh from already desperate people. But, that’s the way of the Troika.

Read the full story

The gun is still being to the head of the people of Greece. Give us more austerity for a better future, cry the bankers. But, truth is more stimulus is the answer.

Read the full story

To be sure, the austerity mongers around the world want to throttle and silence the new Greek government lest the revolt against austerity spread to other countries. But, in this fight, the Greek government–in particular, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis–are really waging another campaign: against right-wing racism and xenophobia. And there’s something to be learned about this for politics in the U.S.

Read the full story

The austerity mongers, who have essentially ravaged economy after economy around the world, are on the brink of destroying Greece. But, Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister, isn’t ready to be broken.

Read the full story

Thank you, Greece voters.

Read the full story

To the list of institutions and individuals who totally screwed up the global economy — and the lives of tens of millions of people — let us now read the mea culpa of the International Monetary Fund. But, this isn’t a mea culpa in the sense of “we didn’t understand”. It’s an admission of “we didn’t care what other people said, we didn’t listen, we did what we wanted and none of us will pay the price”. The fucking arrogance.

Read the full story

I don’t know whether anything will make the austerity mongers around the world — from Wall Street, to the halls of the political leadership — stop for a moment and think, “what the hell are we doing?” Long unemployment lines don’t make them pause. So, if people freeze to death or shiver through cold weather because they can’t pay heating bills, will that matter? Welcome to the reality in Greece.

Read the full story

Austerity has to be fought. And at least the Greeks have the gumption, along with a measure of desperation, to pack the streets.

Read the full story